Roll Up Those Shirt Sleeves

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. I was honored to be the guest speaker in California for a men's retreat at beautiful Old Oak Ranch up in the mountains near Sonora. What a beautiful setting and atmosphere we had there.

Kudos to Senior Pastor Michael Delgado and all of the men who attended the retreat. Wow! The attiudes, music, singing, and spiritual fervor were peak. I must say it was the most impacting men's retreat I have ever experienced personally. Thank you men for having me with you this year!

There was no way to get a flight back in time to be here at Gracepoint on Sunday. My thanks to Kent Miller for filling our pulpit and as always another job well done. Even in my absence a special offering was raised for several important pledges our church had made (thank you John Jones for facilitating the offering). The church family responded wondrously.

Meanwhile I preached in Stockton to Pastor Delgado's congregation and heaven came down friends! The men truly brought back fire from the mountain. What a glorious service we had that day. From there I flew to Houston. Monica and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary on June 11 and chose to stay there and visit our children. This included our daughters Brooke and Erika and their families in Pearland, and Heath and his family in Marble Falls.

We returned Saturday night (thank you Terry Mims for picking us up at the airport in St. Louis) and had a wonderful service at Gracepoint on Sunday. My time here was short lived though . . . because on Monday morning I caught a 5 AM flight back to Houston. There I met Tim Steele from Johnson City, Texas and together we flew to Belize. In Belize we met Jerry and Sandra Sawyer and daughter Amy . . . all missionaries to Belize. I facilitated and we planned a twoyear plan for the missions development for Belize. We finished a little earlier than expected and I preached at the headquarters church in Belize on Tuesday night. We had a pivotal service that night. Only God knows what all happened in that great move of God. I returned home Wednesday night.

I want to thank Rev. Carl Varnell and Rev. Rudy Theissen for ministering in the last two Tuesday evening services. These are both great men of God and I have heard only good reports about the meetings. I hated not being here but I knew the people were in capable and seasoned hands.

Friday night was wedding rehearsal and Saturday was wedding day for Duane and Becky, members of the community who had rented our facility. We had a beautiful ceremony at the church.

Yesterday was Father's Day. We had many out and away and a few guests here as well. I was thankful to be with the church family. I was reminded of just how good we have it, and of the many hurdles and challenges yet before us in the pursuit of church development. It is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

I encourage everyone who doesn't have a great church family to join us here at Gracepoint in Granite City.

Summertime

Well it is summertime in Granite City. Monica and I were elected to serve here as pastor on May 28, 2006, So because of the timing this makes for our fourth summer.

So here is the skinny. Summers in this area are very hot. It is very similar to Houston, Texas where we came from . . . hot and humid. It just starts later, ends earlier, and is a little milder. But it is still hot, hot, hot.

It is also a time of much coming and going. Yes friends . . . I pastor the most vacationing church in Pentecost! So it seems. But in many ways that is a good because people need time away aa well as family time.

As summer starts though, we are beginning services again on Tuesday nights at 7PM. This is our mid-week service. We also have Youth service on Wednesday nights at 7PM. While Youth service is going we have Kid's Church downstairs. We ask everyone in our church to support these services by attending at least one mid-week service of their choice.

Beginning Sunday June 7, our Sunday morning service will begin at 10AM. There will be no Sunday school for two months. We will suspend and "re-think" Sunday school until the end of July because of so very much summer traveling by so many. We will have a better package at the end of July that works better for all involved. This gives our teaching staff a much needed and deserved break.

On June 14 (Sunday) we will begin small group training. We are so excited about small groups as they will fit the personality of our church very well.

Other things will be announced in their proper time.

Come join us at Gracepoint. God is doing a great thing here.

So as summer sets in we will be making shifts in the church. The end result will be a better church future for all.